Date: Tue, 02 Apr 1996
From: Bharat Suneja
To: comments@hsdesign.com
Subject: Your Scanning Tips Web site
Hello Mr. Sullivan,
Congrats, you've got the best Web site in the whole world! Used to be a
little different when it appeared in Publish mag's Annual Design
contest, but even the new redesigned look is absolutely great! And
you've made it to our "Desktop Publisher's Guide to the Hottest Web
Sites" feature due in PC World India magazine!
Regards
Bharat Suneja
Date: Fri, 22 Mar 1996
From: Fred Becht
To: comments@hsdesign.com
Subject: Hi!
Michael,
Thanks for a great site! This is my second visit.
I was curious as to why you don't list Relysis scanners in your reviews.
I have a 9624 and think it does a great job. The only weak area is
totally useless (unavailable) tech support. [WE'LL BE ADDING MORE
INFO IN THE NEAR FUTURE -MJS]
You are a real help to us novice "scanners" and I look forward to a
visit to the Chicage area.
Thanks,
Fred
Sent: Wednesday, March 13
From: "John Betancourt"
Subject: Scanning Negatives
Just went to your scanning tips, Good tips, nice page!
I was looking for some help with Color Negatives.
Scanning negs is simple (it is covered in my book, "Make Your Scanner a
Great Design & Production Tool"!) (I assume you have a copy of Photoshop)
Here's how:
Ideally you'll need scanning software that can import a Photoshop curve
(for the best results).
1. scan the negative as a positive with no tone controls at all
2. crop the image area you need
3. select the "auto" command in the "curves" dialog box to neutralize the
orange background
4. next select the "red" channel (also in the "curves" dialog box)
5. "invert" the curve manually by dragging the bottom left point directly
up and the upper right point directly down. (do this precisely!). Notice
that the curve has been made more steep by the "auto" command.
6. Do the same for each of the Green and Blue channels
7. Adjust the "overall" (aka RGB) curve midpoint to lighten or darken the
image as needed.
8. Save the curve to disk for future negative scanning
9. Rescan the negative with the saved curve! Voila!
NB: a bigger problem you may have is that entry-level scanners do not do a
good job with shadow or "dark" regions (for a variety of technical
reasons), and since a color negative is by definition "dark" you will get
poor results with an entry-level device using the above technique.
-- MJS
Date: Mon, 1 Jan 1996
From: GYROSTEVE@aol.com
To: hsdesign@hsdesign.com
Subject: Scanning
Michael:
Your page is terriffic. It's obvious that you care about what you do, and
are not shy about teaching others. I always tell people that their gift of
teaching others is the greatest gift they can give. BTW, I'll be ordering
your book from Northlight. As an aside, you might tell them to accept
AMEX....some of us are trying to get away from credit card debt.
Steve Roberts
gyrosteve@aol.com
Date: Thu, 28 Dec 95
From: Steve Osterday
To: comments@hsdesign.com
Subject: Your scanner site
Michael, your offering here is supurb! As someone who has just bought a
scanner and not really knowing how to use it, I found the information here
right on target for someone at my level.
I want you to know that your kindness in providing this information is
greatly appreciated.
Since now that my appetite has been wetted, I'll be getting your book.
--Steve
Date: Mon, 25 Dec 95
From: mark levy
To: comments@hsdesign.com
Subject: using a hp scanjet 4c for catalog color photo out put
Merry Christmas Mr. Sullivan,
I really think your web site is great and I am going out tomorrow buy your
book. I am currently trying to compose a color product catalog using
scanned images and wondered if you would e-mail me your opinion. As I
said, I have a Hewlett Packard Scanjet 4c and a number nine graphice card
with 2megs of vram. My problem is no matter how much I increase the dpi
it still looks grany and sort of pixilated. Which is leading me to wonder
about the equipment I am using. I am scanning it into Corel Photopaint.
Well thanks and hope to hear from you soon.
The problem that I can see is that you are getting moire effects from
scanning from previously printed matter. At the high resolutions you are
scanning, I suggest blurring everything just a little to eliminate the
"noise". If you can, use gaussian blur with a setting of radius=1.- MJS
HAVE AN EXCELLENT NEW YEAR!
Date: Fri, 22 Dec 95
From: Julie Wagaman
To: comments@hsdesign.com
Subject: your site
I think your site is the most elegantly and professionally executed one I
have seen yet. I haven't even looked at all of it yet, and I'm very
impressed.
Thanks for the tips.
Sincerely,
Julie Wagaman
Date: Thu, 21 Dec 1995 23:03:47 -0500
To: comments@hsdesign.com
From: Joshua B
Subject: Impressed with your website
What a beautiful, well-planned, web site! I'm extremely impressed.
I stumbled on it in a Yahoo search for "scanner" because I'm trying to find
some advice as to which scanner I should buy. I didn't find that specific
information on your page, but I'm happy that I found the page nonetheless.
Just keep on doing what you're doing. If you don't mind, I'd like to link
your page from mine.
Date: Sat, 16 Dec 1995
From: Alvin Kroon
To: comments@hsdesign.com
Subject: Scanning Tips
What a great service to the public. Not only have I printed out your
tips, I'm buying the book.
Thanks!!!
Alvin Kroon
Date: Tue, 28 Nov 1995
From: Gary Poyssick
To: michael@hsdesign.com
Hey Mike.
I have visited your web site ten times last week, showing it off to
people at my house who want to see the internet. I cannot tell you how
cool your work is -- without a doubt the best looking stuff on the entire
web.
Your Scanner book would make a wonderful suggested reading/optional
materials product, and I was wondering if we could get a price break on
volume purchase. Not huge, but 5, 10, 20 at a time a few times a month
(in good months).
Discount Pricing for Web surfers:
1-4 15% $23.79 each (plus shipping)
5-9 20% $22.39
10-19 25% $20.99
20+ 30% $19.59
Even if you don't have any room in the book I want your blessing to
recommend the book. I just ordered one for myself, but it it's anything
like the rest of your stuff I'm sure it will exceed my expectations.
Thanks for the visual webcandy!
Gary Poyssick
Date: Wed, 25 Oct 1995
From: Malcolm King
To: comments@hsdesign.com
Subject: Fantastic Book!!!
Hi,
Fantastic page and book!!!
I saw this page about a week ago, and took down the details, so that I
could order the book from my local bookshop. What an amazing stroke of
luck that when I walked into the bookstore, there was your book. I
haven't finished reading it, but so far it looks like perfectly suitable
for when my Agfa Arcus II arrives tomorrow :)
Wonderful!
Malcolm King,
Contact Publications,
Durban, South Africa.
Date: Sun, 8 Oct 1995
From: solutonn@ix.netcom.com (Mahesan Narendranath )
Hi Michael,
I am a systems consultant by profession, and I have to be "On the
ball" regarding the computer industry. Till I perused your site I was
under the impression that I knew most of the tricks, Boy Was I Wrong!!!
The site is fantastic and I have already reffered some of my
regular customers & friends. You site gives new meaning to the addage
"One is never too old to learn new tricks".
I will order your book from my local bookshop. Keep up the good
work, and if I can be of any assistance to you, please do not hesitate
to ask.
PS.I find that the scanner could be used to get images etc directly
into any of the latest Word Processing programs. All it takes is to
move one file. If you are interested please let me know.
What do you think of having an area of "Word Processor Hints" in
your web site?
Thanks again & BEST OF LUCK,
Naren.
Date: Sat, 7 Oct 1995
From: trek@epix.net (Frank Rossotto)
Awesome page! Thanks for the tip. I will be using it regularly.
Frank
STOCKTREK PHOTO AGENCY
EARTH/SPACE/UNIVERSE
PO BOX 154
10 East Second Street
WESTFIELD, NEW YORK 14787
Date: Mon, 09 Oct 95
From: Owen Watson
Organization: The Royal Society of New Zealand
I'm still waiting for UMax to get their act together on their
website (http://www.umax.com); lots of under construction
stuff, a surplus of large, useless graphics, no updated
drivers (a curse for those outside the US who've got useless
local agents).
Enough of the wingeing! Nice site, Michael, even for the
bandwidth-challenged. One tip for those who do a lot a line
work: if you're outputting to Linotronics etc, and you're
scanning laser originals, it's always worth checking the
artwork with a printer's loup (magnifying glass) as a lot of
lasers spill toner. If there is a bit of spill, up the
lightness a bit (+20-30 on MagicScan), otherwise it will scan
quite dark.
The other hint is for those too tight to buy a transparency
adapter. I get many large diagrams drawn on film; these can be
scanned reasonably by upping the lightness a lot (+50 from the
suggested figure on the MagicScan).
Date: Tue, 10 Oct 1995
From: 73643.3617@compuserve.com
To: comments@hsdesign.com
Hi Michael,
Damned impressive page man! And very comprehensive. Right off hand, I
don't have any tidbits to add that you haven't already covered (and quite
thoroughly, I might add) but if I stumble across any cool tricks I'll pass 'em
right along to you. And I'll *certainly* direct others that need to fortify
their scanning chops to your page. One more thing: the images load really
quickly. A welcome change from some pages I've visited where things were so
painfully slow I had to bail! I'll see you again soon.
Dave
Date: Sat, 7 Oct 95
From: sveinson@islandnet.com (Bill Sveinson)
Subject: Re: Logitech ScanMan
Hi, Michael
Great web site! I had a fast look, will go back and explore later.
My own problems right now are integrating an old Apple Scanner (not
OneScanner) into my extremely modest but fairly up-to-date DTP setup. For
example, I have PhotoShop 3.0.4, and a Mac with enough horsepower to run it
(barely!), but there doesn't appear to be any such thing as a PS plugin
that will capture output from the scanner directly into PhotoShop. (There's
a nice one for the OneScanner, but it doesn't work with the older model.)
My work-around is to scan into my old copy of Digital Darkroom, which has
an acquire module for the Apple Scanner, and save as a PICT, which I can
then open in PhotoShop. This is a bit awkward, but it works.
Thanks for posting the great home page. I'll be keeping an eye on it.
Cheers :->
Bill Sveinson
sveinson@islandnet.com
Victoria, B.C. CANADA
Date: Thu, 05 Oct 95
From: mfnapie
Organization: wal-mart.com
Subject: Great!
What a Joy!
Clean, powerful designed pages with outstanding, straightforward
information.
You have definitely earned a bookmark. I'll hit this site when I want to
show someone how the web should really be.
Date: Fri, 01 Sep 95
From: Ed Lakin
To: comments@hsdesign.com
I am enjoying your book. I do marketing and design and use both a Mac
(CI) and a PC (Pen90/32). I keep your book by my monitor for those idle
moments when I am waiting on a filter progress bar to make its way across
the screen.
What I like about your book is that it takes a subject that we all have a
rather complete SURFACE KNOWLEDGE of and expands on it. This is a vast
untapped market. Most of the books out there opperate on achieving that
very surface knowledge.
I was director of Advertising for US Robotics for a couple of years and
pushed for a greater involvement in computer hardware ACCESSORIES. Once
you have mastered any computer area and enjoy working with it, you are
ripe to spend a little more money to do more with it. By that I mean that
I think there is a stronger market for SCANNER ENHANCEMENT products than
there is for scanners in this maturing market.
Best of luck, Michael.
Ed Lakin
Date: Wed, 30 Aug 1995
To: michael@hsdesign.com (Michael J. Sullivan)
From: myirwin@uci.edu (Michael Irwin)
Hey Michael,
Yeah, I've sent a few people over to your site already and we've found it
quite helpful. You've done an absolutely commendable job there. It
concisely deals with all those things that I've had to repeatedly explain
to people, all the while thinking "Gee, it would be nice if someone wrote
all this down so I can avoid this hassle in the future." ...and whammo,
there YOU are. Thanks!
Cheers,
Mike Irwin
Minotaur Design
Date: Tue, 29 Aug 95
From: Brian Young
To: comments@hsdesign.com
Subject: Hand Held Scanners
Please accept my compliments on a site that is well executed.
I would greatly appreciate your comments on a situation that I am trying
to address. I want to scan in specific data from a page of data and feel
that a flatbed scanner would either not do the job at all or would be extremely
inefficient. I have seen the "Primax" marketing info on their "data pen."
Do you have any thoughts on this product or others that may help me?
Thanks again for your informative site.
Best Regards,
Brian Young
Date: Wed, 23 Aug 1995
To: michael@hsdesign.com (Michael J. Sullivan)
From: yisroel@sover.net (Eric Jacobs)
I am absolutely breathless. The best pages I have seen - period.
I will now go back to them and try to figure out how to order your book.
About my plea for help on the newsgroup...
I found out most of what I needed to know, but I am still having problems
with Photoshop LE or so Umax says I am. I have trashed the prefs file for
photoshop, but Umax says I should reload the entire program. This is all
due to strange scans (very) that are made aquireing thru Photoshop using
Vistascan (Umax's) driver.
Much thanks!
Yisroel
Date: Sat, 19 Aug 95
From: HARVINDER JOHAR
To: comments@hsdesign.com
Your site has to be one of the BEST I've seen on the INTERNET; the design
is just great. And thanks for the Scanning Tips....lots of stuff I didn't
know was possible!
Harvinder Johar
Tokyo, Japan
Date: Wed, 16 Aug 1995
To: michael@hsdesign.com (Michael J. Sullivan)
From: ree@ornl.gov (Charles Reeves, Jr.)
I just took a brief look (I do plan to revisit when I have more time), but
I must say that I am impressed. This looks to be one of the best designed
and useful Web sites I have seen. The layout alone is awesome.
But with all this info, why would I need to buy your book... just kidding,
because I'm looking forward to buying a copy. Would I expect to find it in
the local bookstores?
Again, good job. And BTW, I publish an in-house electronic bulletin board
for our PC users (all 14,000 or so of them...), and plan to include info
about your site in the next issue. We publish a Web version, but it
doesn't approach the professionalism of yours (and it is for internal use
only).
Date: Wed, 16 Aug 95
From: Richard Tomkins
Organization: neuron, technology consultants inc.
To: comments@hsdesign.com
Michael,
Decided to squeeze some time in. WOW! Really nice, really professional
WebSite. A real nice treat and if anything a great teaser as to what is
contained in the book. Next time someone asks me about scanners, I'm
going to send them to see your site for sure.
All the very best to you.
Regards, Richard Tomkins
Date: Tue, 15 Aug 1995
To: michael@hsdesign.com (Michael J. Sullivan)
From: dlc43@his.com (David L. Charney)
Dear Michael:
I am amazed that you were alert enough to track me down! Indeed, I
have been surfing around because of an inner pressure to satisfy myself
regarding the "ideal" scanner that I should purchase.
FYI, I was particularly amazed that YOU were the one sending me
this message. That is because less than one week ago I BOUGHT YOUR NEW
BOOK! It is really an amazement to purchase a book, and then to be
contacted out of the blue by its author just several days later! Normally,
it is the reader who would first be writing to an author, of course. I
credit this anomaly to the dawning of a very New Age.
I have skimmed your bookt already, and can tell that it is a fine
intro, and will answer many of my questions. I have a small library of such
books, and while your's is the latest, I can tell that it may be the best.
My obsession was driven by conflict between purchasing the Umax
Powerlook (with its wonderful bundling of Live Picture-in addition to
Photoshop), and the Agfa Arcus II. As you know, most people have rated the
Agfa as superior, but "glacially" slow. Today was the Red Letter Day, re
the special bundle--and I finally decided NOT to jump for the Umax. I spoke
to one vendor who intimated that Agfa may be coming out with an updated
Arcus (III?) this fall, with improved speed, so I may be glad I waited. Do
you have any info about this??
I also have paused to think over the totality of the system I plan
to build. I am looking to put together a "primo" system, as an exploratory
platform from which to possibly launch a digital-imaged based business. I
am totally committed to Mac. Now I wonder about the pros and cons of going
for the 9500 vs. the 8500. I want close to the best 21 inch monitor
available (Radius? Precision/Press View?) or possibly the NEC series XP?
Then of course, I have to be concerned about an accelerator card, both for
the video (to support 24 bit color at highest pixel level) and Photoshop.
Radius again?
Finally, I realize I will need a negative scanner, and I'm
interested in the new Nikon Super CoolScan.
Comments??? Since you wrote me, I feel free to inundate you with
questions, as you can see. I will now read your book thoroughly, so I am
not an ignoramus.
Thanks very much for welcoming me. Also, your Web page is neat.
David
Date: Tue, 15 Aug 1995
To: michael@hsdesign.com (Michael J. Sullivan)
From: rickt@ftp.netgate.net (Rick Thorp)
Michael,
Right you are, and interested I am. Just off the bat, let me take a minute
to say "wow." Your site is swell. It's well-designed, organized, and pleasing
to the eye.
Unless you prefer otherwise - and I don't know why you would - I'll spread
the word.
More on this later. . .
Rick Thorp
Umax Technologies
From: Ulrich Mayring
To: michael@hsdesign.com (Michael J. Sullivan)
Date: Tue, 15 Aug 1995
Hello Michael,
I took a look at your scanning tips page and I must say that I like it a
lot. You don't go into great detail in your advice, but of course there
has to be something in your book which isn't on the net for free ;-)
But the tips you have to offer are very helpful and practical to
beginners and in addition I like the design of the pages and the fact
that you make reasonable use of the medium by showing examples for
different types of scans. Although I am not so sure if many users will be
able to tell the difference between the drum scan and the flatbed scan at
72 dpi ;-)
On the negative side there are many typing errors, for example
someplace it says Bsic instead of Basic and fraced instead of traced. Or
did you use OCR Software? That appears to be the case because it
almost always says spi instead of dpi ;-)
[NOTE: spi stands for SAMPLES PER INCH, see glossary - MJS]
And somewhere it says that 24 Bit scans have 24 million colors, that of
course should be roughly 16.7 million ;) [these have been fixed - sorry!]
Nevertheless, the pages are very good, I will include a link to them in
my homepage. One of the few useful resources on the Web ;)
cheers,
Ulrich
Date: Tue, 15 Aug 1995
To: michael@hsdesign.com (Michael J. Sullivan)
From: richiem@nbn.com (Richie Moore, Ph.D.)
Subject: Re: Scanning Tips website
Thank you for the email. Your site is too cool !!! I will look at it
further and drop you a line.
If I have any suggestions, I will pass them along, but you have done a
marvelous job.
Richie Moore, Ph.D.
Date: Tue, 15 Aug 1995
To: michael@hsdesign.com (Michael J. Sullivan)
From: courseware@interramp.com (Gary Poyssick)
Subject: Re: Scanning Tips website
Thanks Mike.
I know you! We've met somewhere -- perhaps at one of our many industry
functions. I will be at Seybold (speaking on the Workflow panel - first
day) and would love to get together. I will recommend your book to
everyone. Great site. I really need some help on home page design and some
other stuff. Let's stay in touch!
I am about to get on the site immediately!!! How cool!
If you would like me to contribute to your efforts in any way, please let
me know if I can be of assistance.
Poyssick 813.855.5067
Against The Clock
From: David Mantripp
Organization: ESYS Limited
To: "Michael J. Sullivan"
Date: Tue, 15 Aug 1995
I've had a look - very nice design, useful info! I've taken a note of the
book ISBN, and will enquire about ordering through my bookseller.
I find the tip about scanning a poor contrast image interesting - why
do you go back and rescan after adjusting the curves (and hence have
adjusted your scanned image on the desktop) - is this to obtain an
image with optimised dynamic range, or is there some other advantage ?
Regards
David Mantripp
Date: Mon, 14 Aug 1995
To: michael@hsdesign.com (Michael J. Sullivan)
From: gmiller@iu.net (Garner R. Miller)
Subject: Re: Scanning tips website
Thanks very much -- I'm really enjoying the information in there. I'm also
enjoying the layout! That is absolutely, positively, one of the best web
sites I've ever had the pleasure of browsing. Very creative -- nice work!
I'll be browing through it some more tonight, I'm sure. Thanks again for
pointing me in the right direction.
Take care,
Garner R. Miller, Systems Engineer
Visual Dynamics, Inc.
Indian Harbour Beach, FL
407-773-7788
Date: Wed, 16 Aug 1995
To: michael@hsdesign.com (Michael J. Sullivan)
From: aba@oc.com (Binion Amerson)
Subject: Re: Scanning Tips website
Michael:
Thanks for the URL. I looked at it using Netscape 1.1 and it looks great!
Congratulations on a wonderful site. I have not viewed all the pages, but
those I read are very informative.
I did print out several of the pages and discovered that the large format
causes the print and graphics on the right side of the screen to "run off"
the printed page. [you can set your "page setup" to print at 90% - MJS]
As to scanners, one of my Internet friends has a Nikon CoolScan and really
likes it. I have also read nice reviews on the Polaroid PrintScan. I may
have to buy a quality slide scanner to get better quality computer files.
Again, thanks for letting me know of your web site. I have already
passsed your URL to a number of friends.
Binion Amerson
Date: 16 Aug 1995
From: "roy"
Subject: Re(2): Scanning Tips website
To: "Michael J. Sullivan"
Since I'm a techie (author of ScanTastic, for Apple, Epson & HP), I'll comment
on just some of the technical things.
1. in the SCSI gremlins category, you should also add:
If the scanner software can't see your scanner, MAYBE IT'S NOT THERE!.
Recommend using SCSI probe, or some other such feature to confirm that
the mac can actually SEE the scanner.
In version 3.0 of ScanTastic, we had so many tech support calls that
fell into one of your ten commandments, but the users swore up and down
that everything was OK. In version 4.0 of our product, if we can't see
the scanner, *WE* throw up a SCSI probe-ish dialog that says, "look, we
can see EVERYTHING else on the SCSI chain.. Your scanner JUST ISN'T THERE!
2. You should probably mention somewhere that despite all the bells and
whistles of scanner software, if the scanner is only 8 bit, the user would be
better off scanning "raw", and doing all of their corrections in PhotoShop.
If however, the scanner is 30 bit, like the new Epson's, then using the
Plug-in to get the best 10 to 8 bit conversion yields a result that PhotoShop
can't achieve.
3. Something also worth mentioning is the anti-myth about resolution. People
have been told so often, that due to halftoning of 600 dpi *PRINTERS*, you
don't need to scan your image at an incredibly high (600 dpi) resolution. This
is all well and good. They then think that they may not NEED a scanner with
higher than 600 dpi resolution, which would be OK if they NEVER enlarged an
image, in which case a 300% enlargement eats up dpi's fairly quickly.
4. although ScanTastic *IS* a commercial product, it may behoove you to do a
public service announcement. Zillions of people on the newsgroups, compuserve,
AOL, all ask: I don't like OFOTO, I want to scan INTO PhotoShop from my Apple
Scanner. ScanTastic does this. Or they say, I HATE TWAIN. It's buggy, it's
slow, and it stinks. ScanTastic for HP, doesn't use TWAIN, it talks directly
to the scanner.
ScanTastic is sold through Second Glance, 714 855 2331.
From: Ted Nugent
To: "Michael J. Sullivan"
Subject: RE: Scanning Tips website
Date: Wed, 16 Aug 1995
Thank you for you suggestion. All I can say is WOW! I love the home-page
(listed in your signature). Mind if I ask what you used to create that page?
[BTW,] MS Internet Explorer works great - (based on Netscape)
I can't think of anything at the moment, however I haven't had a chance to
go through looking at content. Upon giving it a full read-over, I'll let ya
know (re suggestions or how wonderful your page is :] )
Thanks once again!
Ted Nugent
tnugent@direct.ca
BBS: The Undiscovered CPU, North Vancouver, BC Canada (604) 980-1039
Date: Thu, 17 Aug 1995
From: "Scott A. McIntyre"
Subject: Re: Scanning Tips website
To: "Michael J. Sullivan"
Michael,
I was quite impressed with your website as well as the tips and tricks that
you passed along regarding scanning. Some of them were even new to me.
Even made me consider buying your book! :-)
One of the biggest problems that I've had with scanning is dealing with the
Moire interference patterns when scanning from printed work. Often I'll be
taking a printed magazine that a group here publishes and would like to make
available electronically. Thankfully I've found some nice new toys in
Photoshop 3 and my Umax scanning software that helps me get around that, but
if you have any tips on that, it might be nice to pass them along as another
"freebie" to the scanning public.
Perhaps a comparison of the different technologies and how they effect
scanning would be of use. Triple pass, single pass, cold lamp, etc etc. I
know it would be impossible to do a complete catalogue of all the makers and
where to get parts for them, but it might be nice to have a scanning
resource centre that could perhaps mention things like cheap suppliers of
high quality lamps, transparency adaptors...I hate having to call mail order
places and try to describe what I'm after.
Overall, your entire site was very very good to look at. I'll probably pop
back in a day or so when things at work have mellowed out a bit.
Ta for pointing me there!
Scott
****************************************************************************
